APSA MENA Workshops Secure Funding through 2016

In September 2014, the Carnegie Corporation of New York provided a final grant to the APSA MENA Workshops for enriching scholarship and building lasting collaborative networks in the Middle East and North Africa. The two-year, $500,000 funding will support collaboration with early-career political scientists across the Arab Middle East and North Africa. Through a series of annual political science workshops hosted in the region, the program extends APSA’s engagement with the international political science community and strengthens efforts to support research networks linking American scholars with their colleagues overseas. After attending workshops, the program participants have the opportunity to apply for small grants to further their research and publications, to collaborate on mini-workshops at regional research institutions with their workshop peers and scholarly colleagues, and to draw on the benefits of a three-year APSA membership.

As chronicled here in the international section of PS, previous workshops were hosted by the American University in Cairo, Lebanese American University, Le Centre d’Etudes Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT), and Birzeit University and the Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) at the American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) in Amman. To learn more about the Workshops or how to get involved, please visit the project website at www.apsanet.org/menaworkshops.

APSA Workshops in the Middle East and North Africa

APSA’s MENA Workshops program continued this fall with a conference held at Lebanese American University in Beirut, Lebanon from September 15–19.

The Beirut workshop was a follow-up event to the May workshop in Amman, Jordan and looked at challenges of democratic consolidation following the Arab Spring movements of 2010–2012. Participants included 17 political and social scientists from a wide range of universities and research institutions (10 in the MENA region, seven in the US/Europe). In addition to discussion sessions that drew from a unique syllabus based on the workshop theme, the program included methods sessions and significant time for participants to present and receive feedback on their own research projects. Participants also made time to visit the beautiful Jeita Grotto and enjoy the attractions of downtown Beirut. Concluding their participation in the five-month workshop program, alumni were provided three years’ complimentary membership to APSA and are now eligible to apply for small grants to support their further research.

Participants in the 2014 MENA Workshop pose after their closing dinner in Brummana, Lebanon. (Photo courtesy of Andrew Stinson.)

For more information on the 2014 workshops or the overall program, please visit APSA’s MENA Workshops website at www.apsanet.org/menaworkshops.

2015 International Workshops: Call for Participant Applications

APSA announces a call for applications from individuals who would like to participate in the 2015 Africa and MENA Workshops. Both programs are structured as intensive short courses focusing on a substantive theme in political science that also include methods training and presentations of participants’ research.

The two-week Africa Workshop is scheduled for July 2015, and will be the eighth and final workshop in this program. Previous workshops have been held in Maputo (2014), Ouagadougou (2013), Gaborone (2012), Nairobi (2011), Dar es Salaam (2010), Accra (2009), and Dakar (2008). The workshop is targeted at PhD students and faculty in the social sciences residing in Africa who are in the early stages of their academic career. Up to four PhD students from US universities will also be accepted. The organizers will cover all costs of participation (travel, lodging, meals, and daily stipend) for up to 26 qualified applicants.

The 2015 MENA Workshops will be structured as two related, one-week sessions with a three-to-four-month break in between. Previous workshops have been held at the American University in Cairo, the American Center of Oriental Research in Amman, the Center for Maghreb Studies in Tunis, and Lebanese American University. The workshop is targeted at Arab PhD students and postdoctoral scholars in the social sciences who are based at universities or research institutes in the Arab MENA region. In addition, several PhD students from US and/or European universities will also be accepted. The organizers will cover all costs of participation (travel, lodging, meals, and daily stipend) for up to 26 qualified applicants.

For more information, contact Andrew Stinson (for Africa Workshops) at [email protected] or Ahmed Morsy (for MENA Workshops) at [email protected]. Workshop websites can be visited at www.apsanet.org/africaworkshops and www.apsanet.org/menaworkshops.

International Workshops: Alumni Networking Grants

To further support International Workshop alumni along their scholarly careers, APSA offers over $72,000 in small grants each year to members of the Africa Workshops (with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) and MENA Workshops (with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York) alumni communities. Funding is used to support alumni participation in professional development opportunities, facilitate networking potential, and encourage regional collaboration among scholars and academic institutions. From February to October 2014, small grants were awarded to the following alumni:

Africa Workshops (alumni year) totaling $10,345.00

Henry Kam Kah (2009)

Edmond Mballa Elanga (2013)

Aremu Fatai Ayinde (2012)

Freedom Onuoha (2009)

Idahosa Osaretin (2014)

Celso Monjane (2014)

Alpha Ba (2014)

MENA Workshops (alumni year) totaling $6,433.00

Nermin Allam (2013)

Guy Burton (2013)

May Darwich (2013)

Tereza Jermanova (2013)

Abdul-Wahab Kayyali (2013)

Karim Sadek (2013)

Ilham Sadoqi (2013)

Karen Young (2013)

Application and program information can be found on the Africa Workshop (www.apsanet.org/africaworkshops) and MENA Workshop (www.apsanet.org/menaworkshops) websites. Questions should be directed to Andrew Stinson at [email protected] (for Africa Workshop grants) and Ahmed Morsy at [email protected] (for MENA Workshop grants).